Revelation 9:1-21
Q.1. What is the meaning of the star that fell from Heaven? Who controls this judgment? What limitation is placed on their torment? – (Rev.9:1-11)
This star that fell from heaven is Satan. As happened in the story of Job, he is given power to release horrible demons -1 Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key to the bottomless pit was given to him. 2 He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. 3 Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power (Rev.9:1-3 c.f. Job 1:12; 2:6; Is.14:12-15). Satan is not given unlimited power, although his influence will be devastating – 4 They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree …5 And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man (Rev.9:4-5). What John saw in his vision must have been hard to describe for a first century man. He recorded that God controls the fifth Trumpet judgment, and Satan can only afflict the unsaved – only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads (Rev.9:4). The name of the wicked ruler is further revealed. – They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek, he has the name Apollyon (Rev.9:11). These words mean ‘destroyer’.
Q.2. Who controls the sixth trumpet judgment? Whom will it involve? How extensive is its impact? Does it change the hearts of sinners? – (Rev.9:12-21)
The sixth Trumpet judgment comes from the Throne Room of God. He controls even the fallen angels that are bound – one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates” (Rev.9:14 c.f. Jude 1:6; 2 Pet.2:4). These evil angels marshal a two hundred million army, to slay one third of mankind (Rev.9:15-16). Again John had difficulty in describing what he saw, since it would be unlike anything he had ever seen. Whatever he was describing, the result was that – a third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths (Rev.9:18). However, this carnage fails to impress or change people’s hearts – The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk (Rev.9:20). John informed us that – and they did not repent of their murders i.e. murder and abortion will be rife, or of their sorceries [Gk: pharmakeia – illicit drugs], nor of their immorality [Greek: porneia – the sexual revolution has turned sex into a weapon of Satan – nor of their thefts i.e. our budgets and economies depend on our using what we do not own (Rev.9:21). Our generation qualifies for these prophetic events.